Sean Sivley

Two Athens men accused of moving a truckload of old tires into Limestone County have been arrested and charged with illegal transport of scrap tires, an official said.

The two men were charged on a little-used law that prohibits people from transporting more than eight tires at a time.

The Limestone County sheriff’s investigator who made the arrest has since briefed other deputies on the law so they can charge future violators.

A reporter’s help led to the arrest of the two men, said Investigator Steve Croley.

Eye for tires

Channel 48 television reporter Dion Hose was driving in Limestone County last week when he saw a truck hauling a large load of scrap tires, Croley said. Aware the county was trying to crack down on illegal tire dumping and fearing the truck driver and passenger might be intending to dispose of them illegally, Hose followed the truck and called the Sheriff’s Office.

Croley stopped the truck and interviewed the driver and passenger — John Wayne Davis, 42, of 15022 Bell Road, and Sean Paul Sivley, 31, of 14621 Chris Way.

The men said they were not planning to dump the tires.

“They said they had picked up the tires in Decatur and were trying to sell them to some tire dealers,” Croley said. “They said they were taking the tires to county shops and disposing of them there.”

There’s a law for that

The men were not charged at the time because Croley was unaware of a state law banning the transport of more than eight scrap tires, he said. He learned about it after calling the Alabama Department of Environmental Management about the incident.

Since January, the county has been working with ADEM to clean up discarded tires and to crack down on people dumping them. ADEM has helped clean up more than 125 tires dumped in the area of Bell Road, Croley said. (Under state law, scrap tires must be dumped at an authorized tire recycling facility or landfill.) Early this month, County Commissioner Jason Black had asked residents who see someone pulling a trailer filled with used tires to write down the truck’s tag number and a description of the vehicle and relay the information to the Sheriff’s Office.

Croley obtained warrants, and Davis and Sivley were arrested Wednesday on one count each of illegal transport of scrap tires, records show. They were released from the Limestone County Jail after posting bail of $500 each.